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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (3564)	7/21/2003 10:19:17 PM
From: Tom Clarke	Respond to of 793549

Democrat activists push surprise as potential Terminator stopper By Dion Nissenbaum Mercury News Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO - In a state trying to come to terms with the extraordinary prospect of ousting its governor and replacing him with the Terminator, Bay Area activists are stirring things up even more by trying to recruit reformed conservative Arianna Huffington to enter the race as the progressive alternative. The possibility of the SUV-hating Arianna squaring off against the Hummer-loving Arnold for the right to replace Gov. Gray Davis is creating a buzz from San Francisco to Santa Monica. One eager supporter has already dubbed the potential matchup ``The Hybrid vs. the Hummer.'' In any other election, the notion of progressive Californians rallying behind Huffington might seem strange. She's a onetime anti-feminist Republican, New-Age devotee who divorced her husband after the former California congressman outed himself as gay in Esquire magazine. Yet Arianna advocates say the movement to draft the syndicated columnist seems to be gathering steam. Leading the charge is Bay Area activist Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco. Jones and the fledgling campaign are preparing to unveil their Web site -- www.RunAriannaRun.com -- to generate enthusiasm. ``She's anti-drug war, tough on corporate crime, anti-war, anti-Bush, pro-environment, pro-electoral reform -- and smart as hell,'' Jones wrote in an e-mail sent out last week to dozens of activists. ``If anybody could pull this off, it would be Arianna.'' So far, Huffington has done nothing to knock down the idea. Jones said Friday that Huffington was ``flattered, but non-committal'' when he recently raised the idea with her, and vowed to talk to him more about it when she returns from an overseas vacation in two weeks. Huffington couldn't be reached, and her office assistant declined to comment. Support from Green's Camejo But that isn't stopping the movement -- which is already drawing surprise support from Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, who said he might bow out of the race and support Huffington if she embraces a progressive agenda. ``I'd be perfectly willing to withdraw and consider supporting someone else,'' Camejo said Friday. ``I think it could be rather interesting if she got into the race.'' The Draft Arianna movement arose out of simmering concerns among left-leaning Californians that the Democratic Party's strategy of supporting Davis by keeping other Democrats off the ballot is a ``suicide mission.'' The prospect of having no one to support as an alternative if Davis is ousted has many liberals nervous. In a recall election, voters would be asked two questions: whether Davis should be recalled, and who should be his replacement. If enough Californians vote to oust Davis, the alternative candidate with the most votes would quickly take over. ``I think the recall is despicable,'' said Hollywood film producer Robert Greenwald, a liberal activist pushing Arianna's candidacy. ``But . . . given Gray Davis's position on everything from corporate money to prison guards to social justice -- there's no possible way I could find myself in a position of supporting him.'' Alternative to Davis Although some liberals are sympathetic to Camejo's campaign, many say he has neither the cash nor the cachet to win. Arianna has both. With Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger signaling he may join the battle to oust Davis, liberals began trolling for an alternative. Greenwald and Jones had the same epiphany: Arianna. The 53-year-old daughter of a Greek newspaper publisher has undergone a political transformation in recent years. Once a darling of the right, she's now a darling of the left. She began her career as a conservative who questioned the feminist movement and castigated liberal ideas. SUV bashing After Sept. 11, 2001, Huffington abandoned her Lincoln Navigator for an energy-efficient hybrid Toyota and took gas-guzzling Americans to task. Earlier this year, she helped produce television commercials spoofing federal government ads that linked casual drug use to international terrorism. Huffington's ads suggested that SUV-driving Americans were helping to fund terrorists by gobbling up oil from the Middle East. Huffington began her life in America as an ambitious New York socialite. She married Michael Huffington a few years before he launched his brief political career by spending $5 million in 1992 to represent Santa Barbara in Congress. Two years later, he lost a costly battle to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. During the race, Arianna was portrayed as the power behind the throne who was manipulating her less-astute husband for her own political gain. She was forced to admit her ties to a California New Age guru, and that they had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny. After Huffington admitted he was gay, Arianna divorced him and began a career as a political pundit. bayarea.com

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (3564)	7/21/2003 10:48:01 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793549

Here is Andrew Sullivan's blog on Gilligan. Really damning, IMO. >>GILLIGAN'S ISLAND OF UNTRUTH: It's worth recalling that the suspect BBC journalist in the David Kelly tragedy has a record. Yep, it was Gilligan who refused to believe that U.S. troops had reached Baghdad the day they did. His deep hostility to the war against Saddam has been his motivating force as a reporter since the conflict began. Here's a link to a story explaining his role that day:http://www.conquestdesign.com/html/BBC.html Cut to: Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's man in downtown Baghdad. "I'm in the center of Baghdad," said a very dubious Gilligan, "and I don't see anything. But then the Americans have a history of making these premature announcements." Gilligan was referring to a military communiqué from Qatar the day before saying the Americans had taken control of most of Baghdad's airport. When that happened, Gilligan had told World Service listeners that he was there, at the airport - but the Americans weren't. Gilligan inferred that the Americans were lying. An hour or two later, a different BBC correspondent pointed out that Gilligan wasn't at the airport, actually. He was nearby - but apparently far enough away that the other correspondent felt it necessary to mention that he didn't really know if Gilligan was around, but that no matter what Gilligan had seen or not seen, the airport was firmly and obviously in American hands. It was important to the BBC that Gilligan not be wrong twice in two days. Whatever the truth was, the BBC, like Walter Duranty's New York Times , must never say, "I was wrong." So, despite the fact that the appearance of American troops in Baghdad was surely one of the war's big moments, and one the BBC had obviously missed, American veracity became the story of the day. Gilligan, joined by his colleagues in Baghdad, Paul Wood and Rageh Omaar, kept insisting that not only had the Americans not gone to the "center" - which they reckoned to be where they were - they hadn't really been in the capital at all.What are the odds that this guy hyped the modest criticisms made by David Kelly in order to wound the Blair government? The BBC, it seems to me, broadcast something they knew to be untrue for political purposes. I have one suggestion: believe not a word the BBC is reporting on Iraq right now. They cannot be trusted. They want the liberation of Iraq to fail.http://andrewsullivan.com/